Preventable Diseases - Leading Cause of Death in Developing Countries

Introduction: infant and childhood mortality remains high in the poor population of the developing world. objective: the aim of this study was to determine the leading causes of death among children admitted to the hospital with acute illnesses in a developing country. place and duration of study: the department of pediatric medical unit-1 of the children's hospital and the institute of child health,lahore from march 2011 to november 2011. patients and methods: descriptive observational study carried out at the children's hospital. the study population comprised of children admitted to general medical ward i,who had passed away with different diseases. results: 62 (62%) were male and 38 (38%) were female out of 100 child deaths. age range was from 01 month to 14 years. maximum number of mortality was < 1 year 69 (69%) and only 7 (7%) of total deaths were > 5 years of age. deaths were maximum during the first few months of life,with 46% occurring in the first 6 months. 41 (41%) of children had weight for age <60%,33 (33%) had 60-70%,14 (14%) had 70-80% and only 12 (12%) had weight >80%. enteric diseases was the most common cause present in 36 (36%) of all deaths,followed by acute lower respiratory infection (alri) 27 (27%) and central nervous system (cns) infection in 25 (25%). other than these number of diseases were negligible. conclusion: a significant proportion of deaths in children can be prevented by making strategies to decrease malnutrition and infections.